Monitor GPU Usage With nvtop Instead of nvidia-smi

Melvin Vivas · X post · 2026-07-18 · Open on X

Topics: LLMOps, Deployment & Monitoring, AI Dev Tools & Productivity · Level: beginner

Summary

The creator recommends nvtop, an interactive, htop-style GPU monitor, instead of running nvidia-smi to check GPU usage. It's a handy tool for anyone running local models.

Key points

• nvidia-smi gives a one-off snapshot of GPU usage
• nvtop is an interactive, htop-style monitor showing GPU use, memory and processes over time
• Useful when running local model inference or training

Resources mentioned

• nvtop · tool · github.com · free
  An open-source, top-style monitor for GPU usage in the terminal.
  Also in: GPU devbox Docker image with coding agents on Runpod (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), GPU-Ready AI Devbox Docker Image on Runpod (PyTorch 2.8 + CUDA 12.8) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• nvidia-smi · tool · developer.nvidia.com · free
  An NVIDIA command-line tool that shows the attached GPU, its VRAM and how much is in use.
  Also in: Run Local Models on a Free GPU with Google Colab (T4) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)

Try this

• Install nvtop to monitor GPU usage while running local models